EDITORIAL|Greene indictments won't mend broken trust in Buncombe

Wanda Greene, former Buncombe County manager, walks leaves the federal courthouse in Asheville with her attorney Noell Tin, and Thomas Amburgey after her arraignment on her charges of wire fraud, conspiracy, embezzlement and aiding and abetting Thursday, April 13, 2018.(Photo11: Matt Burkhartt/mburkhartt@citize)Buy Photo

Each new revelation in the Wanda Greene scandal reminds us of how much we still do not know.

A lot of answers may be contained in the documents the Citizen Times has requested under the Freedom of Information Act. For instance, we might finally learn which former county commissioner is lying about using gift cards supplied by Greene to buy food, furniture and jewelry. As it stands, four innocent people are under a cloud because a fifth won’t admit errors.

Other questions probably are beyond the scope of any paper trail. One of those is why commissioners elevated a top supervisor under Greene - her second in command, at a time - to be the new manager without so much as a search, or even much thought.

It also probably is outside the scope of documents to explain why Greene’s son Michael was being paid $120,350 a year for a job the county saw no need to fill when he resigned the day the federal investigation into county officials was announced.

But taxpayers who funded this nepotistic joyride deserve to know what apparently expendable duties cost them $120,000 a year.

More answers should be forthcoming when the Greenes go on trial. Wanda Greene faces two sets of charges, the first of conspiracy, wire fraud and embezzling public funds and aiding and abetting such embezzlement, and the second of wire fraud, federal program fraud and money laundering. Michael Greene is accused of wire fraud and conspiracy.

The first set of charges against Wanda Greene, and those against Michael Greene, involve some $200,000 in improper spending through various means, including the gift cards. The new charges involve improper use of money left over from lawsuit settlements to purchase whole-life insurance policies for top county employees, including Wanda Greene.

Other questionable activities included large sums spent both on early retirement and to discourage early retirement, Greene herself took advantage of both. There also were large bonuses for top employees, again including Greene.

We doubt, however, that anything which comes out in the courtroom will help us understand why Greene got away with misdeeds for so long. The obvious explanation is that her skills as an administrator, demonstrated by the county’s AAA bond rating, lulled her bosses into letting her go about her job with minimal supervision.

Even so, why didn’t anyone notice anything? How could the proliferation of gift cards escape anyone’s notice? Greene made efforts to keep the lid on, as in telling recipients of the insurance policies not to talk about them, but it’s hard to believe the word didn’t get around in any case.

In any organization, it can be unhealthy to cross a powerful administrator. “If she didn’t like you, hard things would come your way,” said Sheriff Van Duncan. That may explain why employees didn’t speak up, but it doesn’t explain why county commissioners so blithely ignored what was going on with their top employee.

An overhaul of personnel rules approved by commissioners in October including setting up an anonymous tip-line for whistle-blowers, as well as ending the county's early retirement program and requiring that bonuses and incentives be reported to elected officials.

Last week, the county finally got around to going after some of the misspent money, through a civil lawsuit against the Greenes. That’s good, if overdue. The people need to recover as much of their money as possible.